The current investigation into the Suffolk murders has prompted comparisons with other cases of serial killers, from Jack the Ripper through the Yorkshire Ripper to Fred and Rosemary West, in which there were either no convictions or long periods before arrests. So have police investigations into serial murders improved over the years?

I asked Albert Patrick, who has been involved in around 500 murder investigations during 31 years at the Met. Most significantly, he was involved in a case very similar to the Suffolk inquiry, that of Colin Ireland, who killed five gay men and was jailed for life in 1993. In both cases, the killer or killers had targeted a very specific group of victims and in both cases they were killing "in real time" as the hunt for them continued.

One thing that hasn't changed, reckons Patrick, is the sheer workload involved in investigating five separate murders. "I probably slept one hour a night in the section house," he says of the time, recalling briefings at 7 am for the team and another at 6pm each night before working on until the small hours. But techniques and the numbers of officers involved have changed dramatically. In the old days, squads were relatively small and scientific techniques limited. The Suffolk inquiry has a team of 300, about three times the size of the numbers involved in the Ireland case in London. It was now possible to have live video-links to the scene of a crime, for DNA to point detectives at a suspect and there are new custom-built briefing rooms with space for up to 500 officers.

In Suffolk, Det Supt Stewart Gull has made himself very available to the media and has taken part in many televised briefings and interviews. Patrick says that while the press can get in the way, if they are not properly briefed and kept informed then they will find their own witnesses. This can cause complications when it comes to trial if a witness has told the police something different to what they have told the media.

Of criminal profilers, Patrick says that suggesting that a killer may be a man in his twenties, thirties or forties is not exactly "rocket science - I've had a profiler give us information that was a total load of bollocks." But there are some good ones, too, he says, particularly in cases involving child killers. Officers investigating such high-profile cases are conscious of pressure to make arrests and when a breakthrough comes, the whole team feels it.

Patrick, who now reviews murder cases for the police to ensure that nothing has been missed, says that there is nothing like the feeling of satisfaction when detectives believe the murderer has finally been caught. But, as he points out, "that's only the start of it, getting them on the sheet. You've still got to take it to court."